From
the time of its inception in 1917 until Leonard Woolf sold the Hogarth
Press in 1946, only 34 of the 525 Press publications were printed by
hand. Smith College owns a dozen of the hand-printed titles. Printed
and bound by Leonard and Virginia Woolf, they are fascinating examples
of amateur bookmaking. The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot is the iconic volume
produced by the Hogarth Press and an emblem of high modernist verse.

The illustrator Richard Kennedy worked at the Hogarth
Press from 1928 to 1930. In one of his original drawings, Virginia Woolf
is seen setting the type for Herbert Palmer’s poems. Kennedy feeds
a platen press in the foreground. George (“Dadie”) Rylands,
who was also an assistant at the Hogarth Press, published two volumes
of poems, one of which is on display. Setting type and binding books
were therapeutic activities for Virginia Woolf. She was trained by bookbinder
Sylvia Stebbing.

T. S. Eliot. The Waste Land. Richmond: Hogarth Press, 1923. The first
British edition of the poem with T. S. Eliot’s notes. One of 460
copies. Purchased.

Leonard Woolf. Stories
of the East. Richmond: Hogarth Press, 1921. From the library of
David Garnett. One of 300 copies, with cover design by Carrington.
Presented by Elizabeth P. Richardson ’43.

Herbert. E. Palmer. Songs
of Salvation, Sin, and Satire. London: Hogarth Press, 1925. Corrected
and inscribed by the author to Maurice Wollman. Dedicated to the
ghosts of John Masefield and Siegfried Sassoon. One of 300 copies.
Purchased.

George Rylands. Poems. London: Hogarth Press, 1931.
Copy number 169 of 350, signed by the author. Purchased.

Virginia Woolf and Leonard Woolf. Two Stories. Richmond:
Hogarth Press, 1917. With prospectus. Contains “Three Jews”
by Leonard Woolf and “The Mark on the Wall” by Virginia
Woolf. One of 150 copies, with woodcuts by Dora Carrington, bound
in Japanese grass paper. Presented by Frances Hooper ’14.